In general, wood-cased glass door assemblies having a glass door that may be opened have a structure wherein a glass door includes a glazing, and wooden stiles and rails, which are fitted on an outer peripheral edge of the glazing. The glass door may be opened and closed and is fitted into a wooden doorcase fixed in an opening in a wall. The wood-cased glass door provides a feel characteristic of wood, with a soft appearance and graceful texture unlike aluminum sashes and the like. Moreover, a wood-cased glass door is easy to process and excellent in design. Therefore, such doors are used in many buildings.
In the wood-cased glass door assemblies of this kind, spaces are required between the wooden doorcase and the stiles and rails of the glass door for their opening and closing operation. It is also unavoidable that spaces are defined between the stiles and rails, and glazing of the glass door from the viewpoint of production and processing. In addition, spaces having relatively large widths are defined between the wooden doorcase and the wooden bottom rail of the glass door and between the wooden bottom rail and the glazing, in particular, at the bottom of the wood-cased glass door assembly from the viewpoint of necessity of draining.
For this reason, the wood-cased glass door assemblies of this kind involve a disadvantage that when a fire occurs on the inside or outside of a wood-cased glass door assembly, flames and smoke tend to exit or enter together with hot air through the above-described spaces even at the initial stage of the fire.
Further, since the flames tend to enter the spaces as described above, the wooden parts also tend to be damaged by the fire at a comparatively early stage. The damage of the wooden parts by the fire involves a disadvantage in that the glazing falls off from the stiles and rails, so that the interior and exterior thereof communicate with each other and the flames and smoke hence freely exit or enter therethrough, resulting in the spread of the fire.